


Years Apart (Together)

by fairytalehearts



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Changes after the Pilot, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-15
Updated: 2017-01-15
Packaged: 2018-09-17 13:56:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9327947
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fairytalehearts/pseuds/fairytalehearts
Summary: Bruce had been gone for seven years.Not that she was keeping track.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Believe it or not i wrote this fic after Gotham's pilot. I was like... why is Jim not adopting Selina? How would that change everything?  
> So then I wrote that and I desperately need to clean out my fic folder.

Bruce had been gone for seven years.

Not that she was keeping track.

**

**_Bruce_ **

“Bruce. This is Selina. I’m- She- She’s staying with us for a while.” Detective Gordon’s unease was obvious, but if a girl was staying with him it must be for important reasons. What wasn’t so clear as to why she was here. In his home.

“I may or may not have ripped off a crime lord and living with Jimmy over here until the heat dies down.” Selina said casually. Part of his talks with Alfred were about control. Knowing his surroundings at all times was part of that training. The facts were this- she was the first person his age he’d talked to in a very long time. Something from her demeanor made him think she was as uncomfortable as he was.

“You two- talk. I have some things to discuss with Alfred. Selina- No stealing.”

The girl tossed his badge and wallet back at him and stuck out her pinky finger. “I will not steal anything from the Wayne Mansion. I promise- Bruce.”

Bruce looked at the pinky finger, it was covered in some sort of glove but he hesitantly stuck his own pinky and she took it within her own. He’s not sure why but he’s positive she stole something already.

The two of them are not big on small talk. In fact, they don’t talk the whole time except for when Detective Gordon comes to whisk her away. They spent a little over an hour looking at his files on the corruption of Gotham City.

“Do you need some new clothes? For winter. I’ve started a foundation to help.”

Bruce grabs one of the department store vouchers off his father’s desk and hands it to her. She look at the piece of paper with ‘Thomas and Martha Wayne Foundation’ on it and quickly pockets it, “To help what?”

“Everyone in Gotham. Everyone who needs it.” Bruce thinks it was obvious but maybe it wasn’t.

Selina kisses his cheek and skips off with Detective Gordon. He makes himself a promise that the next time they meet they’ll talk for more than two minutes.

**

_**Selina** _

The future Barbara Gordon doesn’t like her.

Mainly because after five minutes of meeting the woman she had determined that she was not good enough and she was lying about something. She cased the place looking for clues but nothing relevant seemed to come up. But she was learning relevance was all about context.

Their penthouse is small. Not becoming of a woman like Barbara (old money) but it is very cool that it has a clock tower and a spare bedroom with heat and a kitchen. Babs’ the type to eat out at every meal but she comes home with arms full of groceries anyway. Context.

 _“_ Girls need to eat actual food.” Relevance.

“You just don’t want to be seen in public with your fiancé’s street rat. I get it.” Barbara tended to forget that she was there when she was talking shit about her. Grabbing the apple off the top of the bag, tossed it in the air before spinning and catching it, “Or you have the munchies. Lots of junk food in there.”

Jimmy thinks she’s kidding. Cute. Barbara’s stash was so easy to find. Behind the real pearls and gun where she kept her “feminine products”.  Jimmy’s a decent guy wouldn’t be in her womanly business. He apparently didn’t know about his fiancées recreational habits either. That guy wouldn’t make ten years in the police business.

“It’s Saturday morning. I thought we could use that voucher Bruce gave you. Maybe pick up some stuff for your room. And a litter box for that cat you snuck in last night. In the jacket, real classy-like.”

Well both of them were busted now, and Babs seemed to be amused.

Someone knocks at the door, and Selina dashes for it, whipping open the door to reveal- Jimmy’s partner.  She was hoping for anyone else. On the planet earth. Or other planets- she didn’t discriminate.

“Cat.”

“Harvey. I’m going to need a warrant before I let you inside of the premises. There are a lot of whackjobs out there nowadays. They wear shiny badges and beat up innocent citizens- I think you may know of them. They’re called _cops_.”

Harvey chooses to ignore her and walks around her, “Come on Gordon. We got a case. Commissioner specifically asked us to look into the death of his daughter.”

Selina does her best not to look disappointed. It’s not like he pinky promised or anything but the guy deserved a weekend off. Cleaning up the streets was tough work. Jimmy looks apologetic and he kisses Barbara before leaving.

“Jim. Go. I’ll take Selina to the mall.”

Jimmy nods before turning to her expectantly.

“No Stealing. No Borrowing. Be nice to Barbara. While at the mall.” Selina promised, doing her best impression. They shook on it, and Jim headed out with Harvey, the world’s worst cop.

“I don’t like him either, Selina.” Barbara frowned, “Now come help me put these groceries away and I won’t tell Jim you were snooping again. Or that you borrowed those pearls from that poor Wayne boy. Or that the cat has been here for a week and you’ve just now trained it to pee outside.”

Maybe this Barbara chick wasn’t as dumb as she looked.

**

_**Alfred** _

Bruce was in the kitchen.

He wasn’t eating but looking at one of the old menus for his mother’s last dinner party and Alfred knew it would take time to move on. He was so young , and angry. So withdrawn.

“Bruce- what are you doing?”

“I don’t think this menu is appropriate for children. Fois gras isn’t ‘kid food’.” Bruce informed him, putting the menu down and grabbing another, “I wish there was a way for me to know what to make. Or if I could ask lots of people at once. That would be a consensus.”

“Well Master Bruce, you don’t know how to cook anything. That is what the cook is for. Or me for that matter. What do you want to eat?” He hadn’t eaten more than a few bites in months. If he was actually planning to eat- this was progress.

“That is hardly important. Mother always said to cater menus to your guests’ tastes.”

“What guests?” Alfred was even more confused than usual, until Bruce pointed to the cat on the floor. Around the beast’s neck was his mother’s pearls and note that said ‘Sorry. Dinner? Your place at 7?’

“How the bloody hell did the cat get here?” Alfred asked looking around the empty kitchen.

Master Bruce was apparently back to being his normal snarky self, “I let it in the window and it followed me to the kitchen. I suppose it’s hungry. Do we have any tuna?”

That much was obvious, “No I mean, how did it get across Gotham to Wayne Manor?”

“Selina was at the mall.” Bruce flipped the note over; at the top of the charge slip it read “Lacey’s Department Store”. The little bugger deduced that himself. Which was ludicrous.

He was saying that a twelve year old girl trained a cat to deliver messages, and she snuck it into the mall went shopping and then let it free to travel fifteen miles to Wayne Manor? And she was coming for dinner?

Too many things just didn’t add up.

Bruce had already gotten his coat. “We need to go to the grocer’s Alfred, the only thing you have in the pantry besides beer is meat and cheese.”

Bruce never wanted to go anywhere anymore, so Alfred took the chance while he had it. They drove to the grocery store and he watched entranced, as Bruce was- normal. He weighed asparagus in his hands, he asked the clerk for help selecting a meal plan and they walked around the bloody grocery store a good hour before he got out his pocketbook and paid.

Cookbook under his arm, he went into the kitchen and made dinner for four.

By himself.

Pasta, chicken, salad and little cakes for desert.

“Cooking is just math. And science, of course. I do well at both subjects.” Alfred knew that. Didn’t mean he could believe a twelve year old boy could cook. Or would want to for that matter. He even cleaned up all of the mess himself, before looking at the clock, panicked. He was covered in flour and apparently his little date would not approve. Alfred told him it didn’t matter but he went upstairs and did his best job to clean himself up. Before running back up the stairs and opting for a more casual outfit.

Waiting in the parlor, like he’d seen his mother do a million times, Alfred hoped the boy could calm himself down for at least a few minutes before his impromptu dinner party started.

At seven o’clock on the dot Selina Kyle shows up at the back door, laden with bags and a blonde woman who was definitely not Jim Gordon.

“Al. Babs. Babs, Al.”

The cat, as if on cue, pads over to Selina and hops onto her shoulder. Alfred wants to ask. He really does. In fact it might drive him a bit batty. There was no way she trained the cat to do all of these things. “Alfred Pennyworth. I am Master Bruce’s caretaker.”

“Barbara. I am Miss Sassypants’s caretaker’s fiancée. We were at the mall, shopping. Until she says she has an appointment. At Wayne Manor. She had a key to the front gate. And her cat Patricia is here.” Barbara frowns.

Her bags near the door, Alfred motioned for her coat and put it into the coat closet, only to be interrupted by Bruce giving the tour.

“Hello. Welcome to Wayne Manor.  Wayne Manor was built in 1904 by my great great great great grandfather, Thomas Wayne the first. He was a railroad tycoon and a war hero and one of the founding families in Gotham. He believed that a city like Gotham anything was possible. Even in the shadow of cities like Metropolis, he did whatever he could to make sure Gotham would persevere.”

Mistress Wayne would always say that at Dinner parties.

Bruce awkwardly sticks his arm out, and leads Selina towards the dining room. “He made dinner. From scratch. Kid’s never cooked a day in his life.”

There was flour on his sweater vest, and some of the food was slopped onto the plates but Bruce had accomplished something great. And it smelled decent, and at this point he was starving and ready to eat.

Bruce pulls out the chair for Selena and she looks at it oddly. Pulling another chair next to her, she held it out for Bruce. “It’s your house.”

“You’re the guest.”

“You cooked dinner.”

“You set the engagement.”

Barbara sat down at one end of the table, effectively cutting their argument short, “You two go ahead and argue, Alfred and I will be enjoying this lovely meal. Thank you for having us, Bruce.”

Bruce bit the bullet and grabbed a plate of food and he was about to sit down before Selina yanked him down to the floor. “But what if I spill?”

“Then Al will clean it up. Or you can clean it up. You live in a huge mansion and have boatloads of money, you don’t have poor people problems.”

 “What does that have to do with anything? Barbara owns the most high-end art gallery in Gotham.”

They argue more about money and childish things, but Selina eats all of the food she can stomach, while Alfred feeds them scraps under the table. Bruce laughs, a strange squeak and of a thing and maybe this was a sign that he’d be alright.  Eventually.

**

_**Jim** _

“This is a violation of my civil rights.”

James did his best to be patient with Selina. She didn’t have a mother or a family and had become a pretty good thief. He took her into his home. But she had been “slumming” it long enough and when Alfred called to say that Bruce was finally going back to school, he took it as his chance to get Selina out of the house.

“It’s school.”

“It’s Prep School. I know you can’t afford this.”

He could lie to her but she was also good at figuring that sort of thing out. Jim gave a pleading look to the headmistress and took her aside. “I’m going to be straight with you. You need to be in school. And when Alfred called and said that Bruce was delaying school again, we needed to hatch a plan. Bruce-he needs to be around people. We thought if you came with-”

Selina rose one eyebrow at him, before accepting the truth. “We can never tell Bruce.”

He wasn’t sure if she was talking to him or the headmistress.

“I can’t make that promise. The Wayne Foundation pays your tuition and that-”

“I need you to promise me you will never let him know. You have very pretty eyes, it’d be a shame for something to happen to them.” Selina took the uniform off the desk and headed into the hallway.

“-I should. Go.” Jim apologized, running after her. She stopped at the gymnasium where the class was learning how to fence. The next room over was some form of martial arts and at the end of the hallway was gymnastics.

“I need to be my own person. You and me, Jimmy, we got things to a pretty good place, I think. And even Babs. But this doesn’t work if Babs just wants to shove me in some cookie cutter. Especially with these entitled ass-”

Just as Bruce is going to correct her dirty mouth, another girl pops her head out into the hallway. “Are you coming in? Coach Turner is going to show us how to do a backflip!”

Selina doesn’t wait for the coach. She takes off her leather jacket with a flourish and runs a few feet before back flipping past the lined mat and then launching herself onto the uneven bars. The girl copies her motions and twists midair- over shooting the bars-

Selina screams.

Jim doesn’t know what to do his daughter is upset and that poor girl is probably dead-

Rushing into the gym, the girl was hanging from the ceiling.

“Now let’s see you get down, Show Off.”

Hands on her hips, Selina stared expectantly up at the girl.

A mother in the background looked like she was going to have a seizure. “She-She- landed on the bar and then jumped up there!”

Something tells Jim that this girl will not be a good influence on Selina. Not good at all.

The girl launches herself off the ceiling, spins in the air and flings herself onto bars. She landed hard, her grip slipping and giggling the whole way down. Until she slipped, twisting her body into a roll on the concrete.

“Ugh. Bad dismount.”

“We’re going to be friends.” Selina smiles. For the first time, well, ever, she acts like a normal little girl.

Maybe she needed to be around people her own age too.

**

Whenever Selina was missing she was at the Wayne Mansion.

That was fine, they were friends and she normally had a ride there and back. Bruce was a good influence on her. Except for when they go to the movies and Alfred is mugged. Selina slugs the culprit so hard she breaks his eye socket.

“He had a knife.” Is all Selina says before she goes back to Bruce’s side. She doesn’t need to mention that Bruce’s parents died the same way.

“How did little Firecracker break his eye socket?!” Bullock asked looking between the perp and Selina. Alfred was in the hospital and the unis brought her back to the station.

Nygma, in his infinite wisdom, produces a tire iron. The happy look on his face is a more than a little unsettling. “She hit him. Hard. Detective, She hit him with the right degree of momentum to potentially blind him. The young Mr. Wayne here even picked up the knife- no fingerprints. He’s going away for a long time.”

They don’t take the perp to the doctor. He’s bleeding in the cage, and his rap sheet was a mile long.  None of the other cops in the bullpen notice him- because as much as they might hate him, you don’t go after a cop’s daughter.

Dent comes in, shuffling papers and he stops to make sure the children alright. “Ms. Kyle. Mr. Wayne. Are you alright?”

Bruce most certainly does not look alright. Clammy. Pale. The poor kid was probably reminded of his parent’s murder and- “I’m going to take them home.  If you need their statements, Bullock has them.”

The two of them are quiet, too quiet.

“We can’t leave his car here.” Selina perks up halfway into the parking lot.

He wants to ask why, but the shiny 90,000 dollar car sticks out like a sore thumb in their part of Gotham, “And I assume you relieved the uni of the keys?”

She tosses the evidence bag at him, and he drives the Wayne’s car to his apartment. They talk in whispers about Bruce’s “training” and when they get home she slams the door to her bedroom before even saying ‘Hello’ to Barbara.

“She’s only got a few more years until she and Bruce start dating.” Barbara smirks, “Maybe we shouldn’t let them have the door closed.”

“You didn’t see him Barbara. The poor kid was shaking. Selina almost killed the guy. Nothing. No emotion.”

“I hardly think that Selina had no emotion. She was full of emotion, mostly anger.”

Barbara didn’t meant it like it came out, but none the less her words had weight.  Walking over to her bedroom, he did his best to snoop without being too obvious.

_“He had a knife.”_

_“I know, Bruce.”_

_“All of my training, the boxing, the fencing, and he had a knife. I should have been able to handle it.”_

_“No one should be able to handle that. Even teenagers who act like they’re 30. Alfred will be alright.”_

**

The trial is oddly, expedited.

The Wayne lawyer seems all too eager to prosecute the perp and if they had spent any longer prepping with Harvey, Selina would probably go crazy. Barbara does her best to be supportive, but her apartment is not big enough for the three of them plus the tiny one growing inside of her.

“I’d offer you the sofa, but the cats are oddly territorial.” Barbara motioned towards the couch where Patricia 1 & 2 were perched, ready to strike.

Alfred, full well knew the wrath of the Patricias, “That’s quite alright Mrs. Gordon. Morning walks are good for a recovering old man. Master Bruce needs to return home. After the trial is over, things need to go back to normal.”

Barbara knew she was overreaching, she knew that this might not be the right time or decision, “I think this summer, Bruce should go to Europe or anywhere else. Selina is getting- territorial and with the baby coming- I think some space is a good idea. She’ll kill the next guy. And the next guy.”

Bruce comes down in his suit, Selina, her wild hair into a respectable braid, Martha Wayne’s pearls around her neck. “This guy is going to go away forever. It’s nice to be on the other side of the court room for once.”

Bruce smiled before offering his arm to Selina, leading her to the car. Barbara thought maybe it was too late for the two of them already.

*

_**Bruce** _

Bruce watched Selina fly through the air, impressed.

She had done so well in school, he was a little shocked to be honest.

“Are you skipping fencing again?” Selina smirked handing the chalk to him. He dusted his hands and headed for the practice mats, practicing the judo that Alfred insisted he do over the summer. He’d been gone for three weeks investigating Wayne Enterprises international operations and he was actually satisfied at their candor. The problem was in Gotham. Their international holdings were clean.

Flipping himself up he caught Selina as she flew off the trapeze they’d set up.

“Hi.”

“Hi.” Bruce whispered back. He probably should have let her down sooner, but she scrambles out of his grasp rolling back to where Mary was waiting for her.

Heading across the gymnasium towards his fencing instructor, he makes a mental note to ask Selina over for dinner again.

**

“Let’s go to Starling City. You said. It’ll be fun, you said.”

Bruce was not in the mood to be harassed by Selina. He needed to talk to the head of Queen Consolidated and she had tagged along. It was not his idea for her to come. Even if she only packed underwear.

Okay that might have had something to do with it.

It wasn’t his fault that she didn’t tell her father they were coming. Or that little Jimmy was a snitch. The precinct wasn’t as busy as the one James Gordon worked at, but they seemed to be upholding the law. Except he was 18 and taking a minor two hours away was some secret cop offense.

“Sara, Dad said to wait.”

“Laurel, he could be here for hours, and I have cheer practice in the morning. Oliver said he’d give us a lift home.”

Oliver. As in Oliver Queen.

Oliver Queen walked into the precinct, and kissed the taller girl on the cheek. Standing abruptly, expecting chains to hinder him he instead over compensated and almost tripped, if not for a particularly quick save from Selina. “Bruce Wayne. Of Gotham. I’m trying to get a meeting with your father.”

Oliver doesn’t seem to care. “He’s outside in the car.”

“Perfect. You can use my towncar to take these ladies home.” Bruce smiled. “It was nice to meet you.”

Oliver looked to Selina and she shrugged. “He’s polite. Part of his charm.”

Selina politely gave back the handcuffs she got them out of and then the two of them exited the station, heading to the car marked “Queen 1”

Robert Queen is, as Selina would put it: A Dick.

He, in not so many words, told him that Starling had its own problems. And that did not involve Gotham in the least.

**

_**Selina** _

Selina can recap the major events in her life by memory. Her mother leaving. Bruce’s parent’s dying and Jimmy bringing her home. Babs was her mother and Jimmy was her little brother and that was her life. Her nice life.

It was so dramatic, the rain, the lightning. Barbara Gordon (not her mother but her cousin) shows up on their doorstep with three bags packed. She apparently ran away from her foster home and even at seven years old figured out how to get to Gotham to be reunited with her family after her parents died.

There were too many deaths in Gotham, but Selina does her best to dry her off and hope her parents came home soon.

They come back from the Police Gala and even though they’d had their problems in the past, she and Babs were at a good place. But the look that she gives the poor little girl in their living room is not good. Selina sets Barbara up in her room and shuts the door behind her. Jimmy had been asleep for hours and she sits on the stairs and listens to her parents have the biggest argument of their relationship.

Jimmy storms off and Babs sits next to her on the stairs.

“You’re going to take that job in Chicago.” Selina doesn’t cry. She had learned that there was no way begging worked and that she needed to stay calm.

“Yeah, kid, I am. I want you to know that I want you to come with me. That you will be welcomed at my house whenever you want.”

Babs doesn’t have to say it, but they both know she’s staying in Gotham with her father. There’s no long drawn out divorce, there’s no constant arguing. One day her mother was there, and the next she was gone. Again.

Selina moves little Barbara into Jimmy’s old room- fresh paint, new bed, the works. She gives her father two weeks of being a petty little bitch before she slaps him.

“You’re my father. School starts next week and you need to get Babs registered for school. Mom’s never coming home and she took Jimmy with her. You can either drink your life down the toilet or pull yourself together for the Lieutenant election.”

She’s not sure why that worked, but her father puts down the scotch and hugs her.

“Selina- ”

“Don’t be sorry. Be better.”

“I was going to say, I am so proud of the woman you’ve become.” He smiles, heading for the shower.

Heading downstairs to meet Bruce, Barbara stands expectantly outside of the doorway. “Why did she leave? What did I ever do to her?”

She was too young to hear the whole story. The fact that her mother gave her up for adoption or that James Gordon was her father- that her mother, who is alive and well had been in Selina’s life since she moved in. Who had come to family parties and helped Bruce-

“Don’t ever let that effect you. She made her own choice, and it probably would have happened regardless of you moving in.”

Selina’s gotten good at lying and believing it.

**

_**Bruce** _

Bruce looked down at the file cabinet on the floor, his life’s work.

He was disgusted.

He was destroyed.

He couldn’t fix what was broken and he couldn’t trust anyone who could. He needed to get away.

Looking down at Selina’s graduation announcement, the one true friend he’d ever had in his life. He looked at his city, the only thing he had left after his parents died. His fingers went to dial her phone number- she would never forgive him if he left before prom and didn’t say goodbye.

_“You’ve reached Selina Kyle. This is her father, Lieutenant James Gordon. If this is about something illegal, I will prosecute you to the full extent of the law-”_

_“Dad?!”_

_*BEEP*_

He dialed Lee instead and wired some money into Selina’s bank account. She would need it for college or bank robberies or whatever she was going to do without him.

“Bruce? Are you and Selina in jail again? Please tell me you picked a different precinct. No wait, please tell me you’re in Metropolis or Starling or even Central. Bludhaven? Even better if it were out of the country. At least Alaska or Hawaii.”

He could tell she was joking and he liked to think he’d remember her this way, “Lee. I’m leaving. Please tell Selina.”

“Bruce, Winter Break is only two weeks away-”

He hangs up before she talks him out of it.

“Alfred. Call the Pilot. We’re going on a trip.”

**

_**Selina** _

Selina walked into Wayne Manor, like she had done a million times. Smoothing down her skirt she hoped that maybe Bruce wouldn’t want to study the whole time, they could do some fun stuff like video games. Or makeout. Or even get past second base.

It was very frustrating being a teenage girl to a teenage boy in complete control of his emotions. She did have a math test on Monday but there were much more interesting than that she had in mind. Turning past the kitchen she walked down the main hall, like she had done a million times.

There were white sheets over everything, the piano, the desk.

She drops her backpack and her CD player on the floor so hard, she’s sure all of her pencils broke and her new Backstreet Boys CD in a million pieces.

Typed on official Wayne Enterprises Stationary:  _Sorry about Prom._ He didn’t even have the decency to sign the note, and if Prom was the only thing that she was upset about then Bruce Wayne really was a horrible person.

Selina can’t remember the last time she cried so hard. It was probably when her mother left.

Hours later, when her father comes looking for her, he has to carry her to the car. She can’t walk or talk or move until they’ve stopped for dinner and she’d gotten halfway through the milkshake she’d given up drinking in preparation for prom.

“He just left.”

“I’m sorry. He probably thought he was doing the right thing. After the shareholder’s meeting- something changed in Bruce. The company is not where he wants it to be and the corruption in Gotham is ruining his parent’s memory. That’s one of the only things he had.” Jimmy is not a dumb guy but that is not what a 17 year old girl needs to hear when their boyfriend skips town.

“He had me.”

There was a bag packed under her bed. A stack of birthday money and her goggles, a few changes of clothes and some snacks for the road. She wasn’t crying because he left. She was crying because he didn’t take her with.

**

Selina likes to think they fell in love slowly, like rain drops collecting in a bucket over time. Slowly. Inch by inch. Bruce probably wouldn’t admit they were in love but if he did he would say they had been in the bucket together all along. Since they were children and then high school, sneaking the Rolls out for joyrides and then when he went away and didn’t come back for seven years.

She went to business school. Climbed the social ladder. 

The name Kyle was synonymous with success and in a town like Gotham that meant everything. Even if her night time activities kept her busy. Her psychologist, Quinn, said that she took things because the one thing she ever wanted always seemed to elude her.

Maybe she was right.

He’d been home for week and hadn’t been to see her. Maybe it meant nothing. Maybe it meant everything.

“I didn’t want to stop by while your boyfriend was in.” Bruce’s voice interrupts her thoughts, easily stepping into her apartment from the fire escape.

“He’s hardly my boyfriend, Bruce.” Selina thinks that maybe, in another life this was easier. She could be calm and collected and run an art gallery. But she had become soft. Prep school made her soft. She lived in her Dad’s old apartment in the same stupid clock tower, and she did everything to prove she was something to a man who was halfway across the world.

“Your hair’s longer.”

“Than it was in Prague in 2003? Or France last summer?” She had seen him three times since he left, always with the same petite blonde woman, always in different locations. There would always be a flash of a young man in suit, staring intently at her before disappearing into a crowd.

“From the night Captain Gordon brought you to my house.” That was over ten years ago and if he thought that he could just leave like that and come back playing the nostalgia card-Bruce’s tie is crooked and if his mother taught him anything it was how to do a proper Windsor. Tightening the knot, she dusted off his lapels hoping the press hadn’t given him to much of a haranguing after the board meeting. He returned just in time for him to save the day from that idiot in Starling who wanted the company.

“It’s Vice Commissioner now. He won the election. Alfred donated most of his campaign fund, courtesy of the Wayne family, of course.”

Bruce has never been a man of many words, but he is dangerously close to her face. Her mother always thought she was broken when he left but it was really Bruce broken the whole time. She just liked gluing him back together with some of her misfitting parts.

“I would have gone with you. I would have packed a bag and left. I was seventeen and you left right before prom and it was so petty of me but you should have been there. You should have taken me to prom and bought me diamond earrings for my birthday last year. You ruined my life, Bruce Wayne. And I stayed here hoping you’d come back and now you have so, I wash my hands of this and you-”

Selina turns to leave, and if Bruce were a normal human being he would stop her. He would twirl her around and kiss her, then they’d have dinner like normal adults, like the man she couldn’t seem to commit to.

Picking up her discarded heels, she heads to the garage where her car is parked, fully intent on doing something, anything to get away from Bruce, and sitting there in a basket is a calico cat with a bow around its neck.

“Your father said you gave up on cats after Patricia 2 died.”

Bruce beat her down to the garage, his jacket strung causally over the steps so he could sit.  She coos at the cat, and it hops out of the basket and sits obediently at her side. “The world is changing Bruce Wayne.”

She kisses him instead of letting him talk her out of it.

_**_

**_Bruce_ **

The rooftop is oddly warm.

He’d only been out for a few hours, but there was a burglary and he needed to be there. To catch the thief. Especially if the Catwoman was out and about-

 “Tell me what you know.”

The whip stops a mere inches from his cowl, her ability to get the drop on him alarming.

“Three assailants, no known Gang or Mob affiliation and they weren’t part of Joker’s crew. Or Penguin’s. There’s a new element in town. What’s the matter, Cat? Someone steal your prize?”

“I have enough art.” She says rather quietly. “Diamonds are much easier to steal.”

She crouches down, sitting precariously on the ledge below her. Her double meaning was clear. They had their flirtations, and Selina would probably kill him if she knew he was sometimes seeing another woman this late at night.

Waiting for the techs to leave the scene, he was about to sneak across the street when Patricia 3, steps out of the gallery and makes her way up the fire escape. She trots over to the two of them and drops something at Catwoman’s feet, “Good girl, Patty.”

He knows that cat like the back of his hand. He picked it out from the Animal Rescue. It woke him up whenever he was sleeping in too late. It sat on his lap when they were eating dinner.

Selina took that damn cat everywhere. And she had never called any of her cats Patty until Patricia 3.

Selina, or Catwoman, rather, holds up an arrow tip, “Know any Archers?”

“I know someone who does.” Bruce grabbed his cellphone out and hoped she wasn’t out on a job. It went to voicemail, “Sara. It’s me. We need to talk.”

He goes back to Selina’s apartment and crawls back into bed. She’s not there of course but then again she spent her nights stealing high end jewelry and then donating the profits to charity. That particular connection alluded him, and he suddenly wondered if she noticed his late nights at the office weren’t exactly truthful either. Ten minutes later, she slinks back into bed before her phone goes off.

“No, it’s fine. I was awake, Dad. When? Do you have any leads?” She looks back at him before grabbing her robe and heading for the living room where she could talk. She feigns no knowledge of the gallery getting robbed and he can practically hear James’ concern over the phone.

Bruce can’t believe it took him six months to figure out. He decides to get up and before he can even get to the door, two masked figures are in Selina’s living room, looking at him expectantly.

“Who are you?”

The green one responds, “Why are you calling Sara’s cellphone?”

Looking towards Selina, he did his best to keep calm, “She’s an old friend. I’m sure she’ll explain.”

The red one finally speaks, “She died. So maybe you should explain why Bruce Wayne, CEO of Wayne Enterprises, is calling a league member’s cell phone from an Art Gallery robbery.”

Selina punches him in the face, and puts a knife to the green one’s throat. “Your eyes are too pretty to be scratched out.”

“Selina. Let him go. Oliver Queen doesn’t take threats lightly.”

This gets his attention. Like he wasn’t tracking vigilante activity in other major cities. “I need your help identifying an arrow left at a crime scene.”

Bruce doubts he remembers their meeting ten years ago. Sara didn’t.

**

_**Selina** _

Oliver is- a friend.

The closest thing Bruce has to a friend anyway. The two of them were- disgustingly similar, if not for the bow and arrow. After the whole Superman debacle, Bruce had two friends and if that wasn’t cause for celebration, nothing was.

They don’t talk shop, but Oliver speaks avidly about his little wife in Starling, some genius that ran the company now.  Then, after Bruce meets her that’s all the two of them talk about- shop. Weapons upgrades, network security improvements.

All very boring things. Especially late at night when he should be focusing on keeping Riddler contained and Penguin from killing children. Oliver had Felicity to help coordinate things. Bruce had- no one.

She had never personally talked to the infamous Felicity but she had been present when she called. She didn’t sound like someone in their line of work but the revelation that she was Catwoman and he was Batman had been at the forefront of her thoughts.

“What I don’t understand is why you don’t loop Blondie into your little Justice League shenanigans.”

Bruce had rarely gotten mad at her for anything, but the way he snaps to rage almost frightens her.  Almost. If he honestly thought she wasn’t looking at his secure files- he was mistaken. Justice League was a secret, blah blah.

Bruce had many secrets, all of them she was privy to.

When they do loop Blondie into the Justice League, the Bat Cave becomes filled with strangers, all of whom Selina disliked.

They fawn over the Batcave, and she should leave if not for Laurel Lance actually wanting to hit the streets instead of standing there to watch Felicity install secure network cables.

“You don’t patrol?” Laurel asked perched on a rooftop somewhere around 1AM.

Selina checked her manicure and shrugged, “I mainly rob rich people and then sell their things for money. And then I check up on my friends and then Bruce tries to lecture me on the merits of being a good girl and then I show him how bad girls have more fun.”

To demonstrate, she jumped off the roof and used her whip to flip through the air and land next to a woman walking home from work.

“I’m gonna walk you home.”

Laurel landed behind her, one knee bent, slightly wobbling in her boots. She dusted herself off and caught up to them.

They head back to the Bat Cave and she is happy for the company. The four of them were still watching Felicity explain her new network infrastructure.

“She’s so great with the click-click-hack.” Selina mocked, wrinkling her nose up at their new blonde houseguest. “My cousin could probably do the same thing in a few years.”

Laurel chuckles, changing back into her street clothes, “I think you’re the only person I’ve ever met who wasn’t immediately in love with Felicity Smoak.”

Laurel nodded her head towards where the nerds were putting their heads together. “This is where I tell you all to take a break and eat and you all say no and then I threaten you with my stick.”

The robot man agrees, so does the fast one, Clark and Oliver, but Felicity does not move from her spot underneath the control panel with Cisco. Bruce was underneath these with them and as the others filter back upstairs she had to kick the bottom of Bruce’s foot to get a response.

“I’m gonna be naked in about ten seconds and if you don’t want your super friends to see the goods you’ll come to bed.”

“Does that work?” Laurel thought she was kidding. She wasn’t. Tossing pajamas on the floor over his feet she gave a little wave to her new friend and headed upstairs.

Poor Cisco looked like he was going to die.

“Cat-” Bruce frowned, his own internal jealousy alarm going off, shoving her camisole back over her head. Picking her up around her middle, she almost sees the little boy she met as a child. Almost.

Shoving her over one shoulder, he headed up the stairs.

 To his credit he does come to bed, and when she awakes, he and Felicity had gone into work. She does normal people things like go out to breakfast with Laurel and then went shopping. Then when she got back the boys were back in the cave going over SmoakNet, Bruce nowhere in sight.

**

Selina looks down at the poor little boy and dusts off his worn coat.

His mother was one of her best friends, but she could only see Bruce, screaming in that alley after his parents were killed. Dick was quiet. Too quiet. Bruce puts his hand over her own and leads them back to his car where Alfred was waiting.

“He’s coming home with me. Barbara has agreed to watch him during the day.” Selina said quietly, “If this changes anything between us, I’ll understand.”

“It won’t.”

She wasn’t sure if she was referring to their nightly activities or their somewhat ambiguous personal relationship, but Bruce holds her hand the whole way back to her father’s brownstone. Although she lived in her former-almost mother’s penthouse rent-free, going to her father’s place had become a necessary burden. Babs lived there. Her father lived there. She was no stranger to loss, but his engagement party had already pre-empted ten times. She’d like to say she was surprised that he was going to marry Leslie.

She wasn’t.

“Oh, Cat.” Jimmy, her father, the man who raised her and took care of her. He wasn’t perfect but neither was she.

“I might need your help, Dad.” Dick pokes his head around her leather jacket, staring at her father. He remembered what it was like, when he took her home the first time. The arguing with Barbara. The stuff she may or may not have stolen from her apartment. But mainly a lost little child who needed somewhere to stay.

She just hoped Dick wouldn’t get caught stealing anything from the Wayne Manor.

 

 


End file.
